Here is the current top 10 in 2008 cash winnings based on information currently in the database. The database does not have the prize breakdown for the recent Boston Italian sausage or the Michigan Reuben contest after first place:

$15000 Joey “Jaws” Chestnut
$12250 Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti
$8550 “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti
$6000 Tim “Eater X” Janus
$5750 “Furious” Pete Czerwinski
$5000 Takeru Kobayashi
$4500 Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas
$1600 Ian “The Invader” Hickman
$1500 Russ “The Black Hole” Keeler
$1500 Erik “The Red” Denmark

The list does not include money from eating challenges. If it did, Dale Boone would be in 8th place with $1747.

All 2008 money winners

Badlands Booker has uploaded to his youtube page a clip from a segment the Canadian show Careers TV about his competitive eating career. Tim Janus and Crazy Legs Conti also appear.

• Joey Chestnut on the Today Show after defending his Nathan’s title
• Short article about Hall Hunt on jacksonville.com
• Mini burger eating contest in Long Beach Monday. Purse is $600 in restaurant gift certificates.
• FCC affirms $4000 fine of WIP for not following listed rules in Wing Bowl 13.
• Parody about alleged performance enhancing drug use in the Nathan’s finals
• Southington, CT hot dog contest also goes into overtime
• Kobayashi has a blog entry about Hungry & Focused 4 showing Super Paul Barlow’s cover art
• Kobayashi also has a link to Erin Wigger’s gallery of competitive eaters

Kobayashi’s blog announces that his online store has been set up at http://www.merchdirect.net/Kobayashi/. Six T shirt designs are available, including the “Kobayashi eats Chestnuts for breakfast” shirt he wore to the weigh in.

According to the IFOCE.com contest list page (along with the St. Pat’s Chowdown page), $28250 has been awarded in contests so far this year, while $51750 was the sum of the cash prizes for the first half of last year, resulting in a 45% decrease.

There were 3 contests with a 5 digit purse in the first half of 2007 ($10,000 Long Beach chili cheese fries, $15,000 St. Pat’s Chowdown, $10,000 shoo fly pie), while $5,000 is the largest purse so far this year.

The comparison does not attempt take into account the value of non-cash prizes. There were two contests with non-cash awards (not counting Wing Bowls) in the first six months of 2007 (TripRewards wings and the amateur shoo fly pie contest) while all contests so far this year have cash prizes.

The decline in the second quarter (2007:$21750 vs. 2008:$16750) was considerably less than the difference for the first three months of the year (2007:$30,000 vs 2008:11,500)

A listing of the contests and their prizes follows after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

The commercial Kobayashi filmed in Vancouver last month is now available on youtube. Western Canada Lotteries’ scratch and win cards are the advertised products.

Pat Bertoletti appeared on the Steve Dahl show today. One of the subjects was the upcoming Major League Eating video game and the compensation received:

6:23 Sometime during this week there’s going to be a Nintendo Wii competitive eating game. There’s new software for he Wii where you can download games, including the competitive eating game. It’ll feature Patrick, Joey Chestnut, The Black Widow, Kobayashi and 6 or 7 other eaters.
6:24 Patrick’s character looks freaky because they went with his mohawk and mustache look. All of the eaters got some money and were told there’d be royalties depending on games sold.
6:25 It sounds like it’s about time for Patrick to get representation. He doesn’t like the way he looks in the game and now he’s probably not getting as much money as he should be getting. He should have gotten money up front against the royalties.
6:26 Every eater got $500 up front but there were no specifics about the royalties. It sounds like he got ripped off.
6:27 Patrick signed a contract with the IFOCE and they own his image. That contract is up next year. We might have to go in and Urlacher it.

The press release for the Houston gyro contest lists Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti, Bob Shoudt and Erik Denmark as expected entrants.

The sidebar has been updated with finalists for the upcoming Nathan’s finals and the total cash winnings for this year. Joe Menchetti is currently the leader in cash prizes (Joey Chestnut’s Wing Bowl prizes would make him the overall winner in total value won)

I do not have the prize breakdown for the pig skin eating contest after first place. Please inform me of any incorrect or missing prizes. Here are the current top 10 cash winners for 2008:

$6200	“Gentleman” Joe Menchetti
$5250	Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti
$3000	Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas
$2500	Tim “Eater X” Janus
$2500	Joey “Jaws” Chestnut
$1000	Juliet Lee
$1000	J. D. Castile
$1000	Chris “The Big Cat”
$1000	“Furious” Pete Czerwinski
$1000	Erik “The Red” Denmark

The meals Gal Sone endorsed for the Lawson convenience store chain debuted yesterday. Gal Sone has a blog entry about the release containing pictures of a store containing her advertisement. Gigazine has reviews of the meals. Lawson stores will sell the meals until May 19.

A press release announces that Natsuko “Gal” Sone will endorse 9 meals from Lawson stores which are are 1.5 to 2 times larger than normal meals. The meals will debut on May 6. In July, Lawson will sponsor an eating contest between Gal Sone and a team of 10 people chosen by drawing.

See also trendynet

(Via Serious Eats) Trends in Japan reports that Nobyuki “the Giant” Shirota will open a temporary udon noodle restaurant in Osaka called Shirotaya on April 25. The restaurant will serve bowls of udon that are 16 and 32 times the size of a standard portion. The restaurant is expected to close on August 31.

Shirota has a blog entry and Yahoo of Japan has an article about the restaurant

(From Rhonda Evans) Joey Chestnut was interviewed by Ben & Matt on KNIX Country of Phoenix on February 13 to talk about the upcoming MLE video game. Joey is unable to provide any details about that project except for the fact that the IFOCE contract signs away video game rights. He does not disclose how much he was paid, if any, for the use of his electronic likeness but does say that he is looking for a good competitive eating agent.

Joey also says that he expects to break Badlands Booker’s matzo ball record in Houston and calls Kobayashi a “little liar” for claiming he had an injury in the 2007 Nathan’s finals.

Streaming audio of interview, Direct link to MP3 file of interview (9 MB, 9 minutes)

Tomoko Miyake is endorsing three meals sold by SaveOn, a convenience store chain. Convenience stores are called “konbini” in Japan.

(Via “Pleasure and Payne”) Derek “Wing Tut” Payne designed some anti New England Patriot T shirts. The New York Post mentioned that line of clothing:

Derek Payne, 28, of Pittsburgh, designed a line of “18-1″ shirts that are being sold on zazzle.com.

On his shirts, the numeral 1 is replaced with a graphic of a hand flipping the bird.

“I’m a Steeler fan, so I’ll give the Pats the middle finger as much as anybody,” he said. “I was definitely cheering for the New York Giants as they knocked the Pats off their perch last night.”

The New York Daily News has an article about redevelopment plans for Coney Island:

Buried deep in the plans is a provision that says of the 50 blocks being rezoned in Coney Island, only the block that contains Nathan’s - at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Aves. - and one block immediately west would be rezoned for towers.

That means the two-story building, which has drawn millions of hot dog lovers since 1916, could expand to 14 stories - or more - when detailed plans are approved next year.

“Nathan’s would be given more opportunities for development on its property, which could lead to any one of a number of scenarios, including the expansion of Nathan’s or its redevelopment as a new building,” City Planning spokeswoman Rachaele Raynoff confirmed.

Curbed suggests that Nathan’s redevelopment plans include a competitive eating venue.

Fox Business has an article about the economics of competitive eating with quotes from George Shea, Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman and Crazy Legs Conti.

The article reports that the IFOCE has five full time employees. Shea claims that the 2007 Nathan’s hot dog contest produced $100 million worth of media for the restaurant chain. Joey received %0.01 corrected percent of that amount ($10,000) as his first place prize, which might be why has yet to commit to the defense of his title.

The article lists Chapman as the winner of the 1991 Nathan’s contest:

Chapman, a 46-year-old better known in the eating world as “Chowhound,” holds the record for downing the most pickles. He ate 2.94 pounds of sweet hard sour pickles in 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

“Sometimes I don’t know what I am thinking, it’s such an unforgiving food, ” Chapman said. Chapman won the Nathan’s contest in 1991 by eating 11.5 dogs in six minutes, which today seems like a meager amount.

In his most recent blog entry, Kobayashi announces that he is starting a business with his business partner, Bobby. They are seeking 100 million yen ($942,000) in startup financing. The nature of the business was not disclosed.

Usually when competitive eating is brought up in association with bass fishing, it is about the possibility of the Sheas selling the IFOCE for a significant amount as the pro-fishing circuit B.A.S.S. was sold to ESPN for $35 million dollars. Another connection between the two sports will take place when boostedcpe/Butterbean attempts to qualify for the Wing Bowl Tuesday by eating 3 pounds of fried bass in 5 minutes. He announces his stunt in a thread on a bass fishing message board.

This makes the known upcoming stunts for this week:

Jan 14 Brad Sciullo 72 Chips Ahoy cookies & 1 gallon of milk in 2:30 (If allowed to compete due to age)
Jan 15 “Butterbean” 3 pounds fried bass in 5 minutes.
Jan 15 Adam “Hungry Hungry Hebrew” Taxin, hamburger eating contest vs. dog
Jan 18 Pat Bertoletti, 6 lbs of sour cream in 8 minutes

update BeautifulBrian.com has a page on today’s stunts which reports that “Big” Brian Subich qualified, but Brad Sciullo failed to complete his stunt.

In a comment on megamunch, “Will” Bill Myers says he picked up a copy of the Wing Bowl 16 rules when he competed in today’s qualifier. Rule #2 follows:

Wing Bowl 16 is an IFOCE/MLE officially sanctioned and sponsored event, any member of, or person affiliated with, non-IFOCE/MLE professional eating organizations, including but not limited to AICE, are also not eligible to participate in the contest.

The FCC’s web site has a page about regulations about radio station contest rules which states that eligibility restrictions must be publicized in some manner from the time a contest is announced:

“Material terms” include those factors which define the operation of the contest and which affect participation therein. Although the material terms may vary widely depending mentioned in a cupon the exact nature of the contest, they will generally include: (1) how to enter or participate; (2) eligibility restrictions; (3) entry deadline dates; (4) whether prizes can be won; (5) when prizes can be won; (6) the extent, nature, and value of the prizes; (7) the basis for valuation of prizes; (8) time and means of selection of winners; and/or (9) tie-breaking procedures.

In general, the time and manner of disclosure of the material terms of a contest are within the licensee’s discretion. However, the obligation to disclose the material terms arises at the time that the audience is first told how to enter or participate and continues thereafter. The material terms should be disclosed periodically by announcements broadcast on the station conducting the contest, but need not be enumerated each time an announcement promoting the contest is broadcast. Disclosure of material terms in a reasonable number of announcements is sufficient. In addition to the required broadcast announcements, disclosure of the material terms may be made in a non-broadcast manner.

Wing Bowl rules do not appear on 610WIP’s web site. The Wing Bowl 16 page has “Official Rules for Wing Bowl 16″ at the bottom, but there is no link or following information. I do not know how frequently WIP has announced Wing Bowl 16 eligibility restrictions on the air. We might get a chance to learn if the FCC views those restrictions as satisfactorily disclosed if an AICE eater files a new FCC complaint.

update GJoe’s FCC complaint mentioned in a previous comment is based on being excluded from a previous Wing Bowl, not the upcoming one.

In a recent blog entry, Don “Moses” Lerman announces the following plans:

I “m tyring to put together a few contests one which will be the prestigious Lerman cup at the Don Lerman invitational cup a date to be announced and location to be reveled at a later time . so stand by .

The new poll asks what businessperson would make the best founder of a new competitive eating organization.

The chili cheese fries eating contest held at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA was the most lucrative IFOCE event on the west coast in 2006 and 2007. The good news for the future of that contest is the recent emergence of the contest site from bankruptcy after selling to a group of investors called “Save Our Queen.” The bad news is the new owners might have different priorities for the marketing budget.

A meatball eating contest was held at the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City the previous three Decembers. An article in nj.com reports on some of the issues facing that establishment which might have resulted in the contest not being renewed in 2007:

In a rare move, the state’s top casino prosecutor yesterday asked the Casino Control Commission to renew Tropicana’s license for one year — instead of the typical five — and impose seven-pages of restrictions to a gambling parlor that has grabbed headlines for its massive layoffs and patron complaints of vermin, unsanitary conditions and lousy service.

The casino was sold to a new owner, William Yung, early this year and has experienced a 10% drop in revenue.

FritoLay.co.jp reports that snack foods endorsed by Nobuyuki Shirota and Tomoko Miyake were released today. Shirota and Miyake also designed and endorsed snacks for Frito Lay last year.

(From competitiveeatingnews) Cleveland.com reports that a fire on November 8 destroyed a building owned by Chris Abatsas which housed his adult entertainment club, Monroe’s Cabaret, and a dry cleaners. No injuries were reported but a witness believed someone was trapped in the fire. Two other fires have destroyed buildings in Cleveland this month, one started several hours after Abatsas’ building burned and one the week before. Abatsas did not have insurance. The cause of the conflagration is unknown, but police will investigate it as if it was arson.

A 1999 article in the Cleveland Scene reports efforts by the police to shut down Monroe’s Cabaret due to alleged drug transactions and safety inspection violations.

Fox TV article & video

WKYC video

fire gallery

Cleveland.com blog entry

According to the Wall Street Journal, Nelson Peltz, responsible for Heinz’s co-sponsorship of the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest finals, is a champion of consumption himself with regards to his Palm Beach estate’s water usage:

Consider Nelson Peltz. The investor and food magnate’s oceanfront estate, called Montsorrel, is among the island’s biggest water consumers. His 13.8-acre spread, which combines two properties, used not quite 21 million gallons of water over the past 12 months — or about 57,000 gallons a day on average — at a cost of more than $50,000, according to records obtained from the local water utility. That compares with 54,000 gallons a year for an average single-family residence in Palm Beach, says Ken Rearden, assistant city administrator of West Palm Beach. (West Palm Beach supplies Palm Beach’s water.)

The estate uses 21M / (365 * 24 * 60 * 60) = .67 gallons of water per second, so it consumes 27.3 gallons of water in the 41 seconds it takes for Joey Chestnut to drink a gallon of milk.